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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Book Tour & Giveaway - On the Rocks by Erin Duffy

On
the Rocks

By: Erin Duffy

Releasing April 22nd, 2014

Blurb:

A heartwarming novel about
friendship, family, and finding love in the Facebook Age-the perils, pitfalls,
and dubious pleasures of being a modern young single woman-from Erin Duffy, the
author of Bond Girl

Six months ago, Abby's life fell apart for all the world to see. Her longtime
boyfriend-turned-fiancé, Ben, unceremoniously dumped her-on Facebook-while she
was trying on dresses for the big day.

When the usual remedies-pints of Ben & Jerry's, sweatpants, and a comfy
couch-fail to work their magic, her best friend, Grace, devises a plan to get
Abby back on her game. She and Abby are going to spend the summer in Newport,
in a quaint cottage by the sea, enjoying cool breezes, cocktails, and a crowd
of gorgeous men.

But no matter how far away they go, Abby and Grace discover that in the era of
social media-when everyone is preserving every little detail of their lives
online-there is no real escape. Dating has never been easy. But now that the
rules are more blurred than ever, how will they find true love? And even if
they do, can romance stand a chance when a girl's every word and move can go
viral with a single click?

Excerpt:

As a
little girl, I dreamed of getting engaged, though I guess that doesn’t make me
any different from any other little girl on the planet who used to wear a
pillowcase on her head and pretend it was a veil. I don’t know why girls dream
of wedding days the way boys dream of playing professional baseball, but for
whatever reason, I was obsessed with the thought that somewhere in my future a
day would come when I’d be able to wear a pretty white dress and look like a
princess. Deep down, we all want the fairy tale, and if I have to fault anyone
for being able to single-handedly combat all of the progress of the women’s
movement and still convince little girls that the proverbial dream life begins
at the end of an aisle standing next to a man, I blame Walt Disney. Feminism
may have come a long way since our grandmothers’ time, but Gloria Steinem is no
match for Cinderella, which I’m sure is hugely frustrating for her. It has to
be painful admitting that your biggest adversary

is
actually a cartoon wearing one shoe whose only friends are a pack of mice.
Whatever. As far as I’m concerned, Cinderella can suck it.

Since
everything happened, I had turned myself into a hermit, rarely leaving my
apartment for anything other than my walk to and from work. I saw no reason to
leave when I could have food, movies, dry cleaning, and alcohol delivered. I
had no interest in being out there anymore with normal people who had normal
relationships and didn’t have to wear a big hat and sunglasses every time they
walked by Vera Wang to keep from being recognized by the salesladies. I was
pretty sure if they saw me they were going to chase me down the street and hit
me with a bill for Grace’s champagne. I was fairly certain they didn’t
appreciate customers who downed their Moët and then left an expensive gown in a
heap on the floor while they bolted from the store in tears, but in my defense,
at the time, that was not how I saw that afternoon ending.

Fate
can be a finicky bitch.

After
that I just gave up. I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I resigned myself to
a life alone, broke, and, apparently, fat. Not exactly how I pictured my
thirties starting out. I don’t know what I did to anger the universe so much
that it felt the need to sucker-punch

me
the way it did, but I figured there wasn’t much point in worrying about it
anymore. Instead, I locked myself in my apartment, let my bills pile up, let my
friendships wither away, and let myself dry up like a prune. It might not have
been the best of coping mechanisms, but the sad truth was, my apartment was the
only place left on earth where I felt safe. The only way the universe could
screw with me in there was if it put Häagen-Dazs out